MIT Sloan School of Management
GLOBALHEALTH LAB
Spring 2013
Draft Due: End of Week 2
Workplan overview
Your two-part plan for host deliverables and supporting work
Your Workplan assignment guides the bulk of your work this semester. Your mentor will review
this draft with you in your second meeting, slated for the week after the due date for this draft.
Once you’ve discussed the plans with your mentor, you’ll send the host component of your plan to
your main contacts at your partnering host organization to check that they agree and set the stage
for further logistical arrangements.
The first component is your Host Workplan, which is designed to enable you to create the
deliverables that your partnering host organization seeks. Develop a plan for what you will
accomplish for your host and how you will do it. As you work though this assignment, you’ll be
exploring the rationale for your project, defining your scope, specifying deliverables, and mapping
out the steps you envisage will accomplish your work. Begin by planning your work by component,
listing what you aim to do before travels, while on site, and after your trip in April.
The second component is a brief plan for essential supporting work, including three main
components:



An assessment of the setting, designed to aid your understanding of the project’s context;
Your selected design for work you will complete in April: one visual and one verbal
presentation of what you have learned, prepared with current and future Sloan students in
mind; and,
Your initial idea for the focus of a well-curated collection of annotated resources you will
share with your hosts once you arrive.
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Host Workplan
Cover page
A short title that is made up of your host name, plus a few words that convey the main idea of
your project
Your names, programs, and years
Your host organization name and your main host contact(s)
Project overview: A description of your project, in a couple of paragraphs. Main elements:
2-3 sentence overview of organization (from your organizational profile)
1-2 sentences on the problem or opportunity your host faces (which motivates this project)
1-3 sentences on the main work activities you intend to complete
A brief summary of the resulting deliverables that you will generate
Add a sentence mentioning what is likely to be beyond the boundaries of the project—some
of the things that are excluded in this plan
Mention key inputs and assumptions you are relying on, if it makes sense to do so
Explain in a sentence how the deliverables will enable the host to address the problem or
opportunity mentioned above: this is the value your project delivers to the host
Main work products
Develop a descriptive overview, in any format that works for you, of each of the three components
of your host deliverables portfolio:
Pre-trip interim research-based study: a defined piece of work that you will complete before
mid-March that will inform and enable your work on the ground, using data, resources, or
information that would not otherwise be readily available to your hosts (as a rough guide, plan
on work that can be accomplished in 100 person-hours).
Effective interim projects vary depending on the project specifics. In most cases, it is not a good
idea to simply analyze or summarize what the host tells you or has sent you. Instead, draw on
something new that will add a different perspective to the fieldwork you plan to do. Past
interim projects have included: a set of mini cases; a benchmarking report; interview protocols,
process templates, guides, or other materials that you will use and that your host will also find
valuable; other methods of mapping and analyzing comparable organizations or programs—
including those in very different industries. Ideally, this study draws on materials that have
some basis of evidence to support them: a framework from a class you have taken, existing
research studies, or tools and approaches validated by professional bodies are great for
bringing rigor to your interim work.
On-site plan: an initial plan for the work you will carry out on site. Develop this portion to
enable your planning: overview the main activities, then list key inputs and planning required
for these steps (this list can appear in the workplan tasks sections that follows). Also convey
what you imagine you will be able to deliver while on site, so that you have a starting point for
discussing scope with your hosts and mentor (all told, you likely have 300+ person-hours
potentially available for the onsite work); and
2
Post-trip: A broad, general (and, at this point, fairly modest) idea for what you would be able to
accomplish once back at MIT. This plan will likely change, but know that sketching out ideas
now can help you improve upon them while in the field. This final component allows an
invaluable iteration on your work and can greatly increase your project impact (as a rough
guide, plan on work that can be accomplished in 80 person-hours).
Workplan specifics: Tasks, data, progress, and communication
Define each task needed to generate the deliverables at a level of granularity that allows you to
report on progress every week, and assign responsibilities, timing, and inputs and resources needed.
Flag interdependencies and major decision points. Use any format that works for you—a table, a
chart, text with subheadings. Bear in mind that this will also be shared with your host. Of course the
tasks you plan for later in time will be less well developed than immediate ones; that’s fine. Note,
too, that you have some other course deliverables—the essential supporting work listed below—
that will require your planning and time.
To conclude your workplan, add brief statements to address the following:
Where and how will you store and share data of all types? How will the entire team actually
look at and use all your data, so that you benefit from all team members’ perspectives?
How will you know you are on track and getting the results you seek? Not only do you need to
define milestones and indicators in a practical, useful way and list critical decision points, but
you need to have a team activity that addresses each milestone and decision point in a way that
enables swift action in response to your assessment of where you stand.
Your communication strategy: whom you will update, how often, and how (and why)? How will
you use your WedUps?
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Plan for essential supporting work
Complete this one-page form as part of your workplan development. To aid
your planning, the complete assignment for country briefing, due at the end of
Week 4, is available.
Complete this plan for the main components of your essential supporting work and use this for
your own workplanning.
Element of essential
supporting work
Your notes and selections for these
elements
Organizational
profile
(completed end of
Week 1; discussed
with mentor during
Week 2)
If any, complete the following:
Issues we want to explore that came up in
completing the profile________________
Questions we couldn’t answer:
_________________________________
Items from page 2 we should follow up on:
_________________________________
Domain we will focus on: _____________
Teams we are paired with:
__________________________________
Country briefing
Select your domains
in class on Thursday
of Week 2
Annotated
bibliography (due
end of Week 5;
present to host on
arrival)
Sloan portfolio
(choose now for
April): Visual
Sloan portfolio
(choose now for
April): Verbal
Team
member(s)
accountable
Domain we will focus on:
_________________________________
Goal: curate 4-5 great readings, reports,
resources. Assemble all pdfs, then create
document listing for each a full citation,
source urls, and one-paragraph summary
and discussion
Select one, listing the pair of students who
will complete the selected element:
Photo journal of 12 great photographs,
each with an extensive caption, or
Video that presents the project, the
solution, the host, and the setting (we
need videos!)
Select one, listing the pair of students who
will complete the selected element:
Blog journal of 5-7 posts that tell a story
over the course of your project, or
Standalone management module that
takes something you did and presents it to
a general audience (e.g., a how to guide;
or a checklist with detailed explanations;
see MFTW on blog), or
Initial draft of a case
4
Start and end Estimated
dates of task time for task
Other
needed
inputs
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu
15.S07 GlobalHealth Lab
Spring 2013
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